Polishing away their futures

In one of development's pampered districts in Orissa, chamar children are still polishing shoes, some
even as they are supposedly schooling. Special economic packages are helping only a little here, and
academic performance and serious rehabilitation remain abysmal, finds
Ranjan K Panda.

About 13 years ago, when Bhima Meher of Chamarpara in Orissa's Bolangir town's
Shudhpara basti area stopped going to class because he was being beaten by his
teacher, planners in Delhi were busy devising a special package for his
district. Bhima's education ended because the teacher was punishing him
regularly on complaints from children of another dalit community  the harijans.
"Laxmi teacher discriminated against us", recalls Bhima. "That time the
harijans were not ready to accept our children in the same class where their
children studied because they considered themselves to be superior to us", says
Dingra Meher, a resident of Chamarpara.

Bhima was studying in class two then and on that black day, when he was punished to the maximum, Bhima's dream to
become a sarkari babu (a govt officer) also ended. Bhima, now 22, has taken to his
family occupation of 'shoe polish' and earns about Rs.30 to 40 a day.

A few lucky chamar children studying in an school run by the National Child Labour Project. Pic: Ranjan K Panda

Dingra says that the discrimination has withered away with time but is clueless
as to why most of the chamar boys still don't go to schools. Bolangir has now
got one of the best teacher-student ratios in the state and crores of rupees
have since been spent in education infrastructure. Pradeepta Kumar Naik,
District Project Coordinator of Sarva Sikshya Avijan (SSA) says, "While the
average ratio is 1:40, here in Bolangir its 1:32." In fact, it is the doomed state of
development in this district and two other districts that invited special
attention of the Government of India in the 90s. A Long Term Action Plan (LTAP)
for the KBK( Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput) districts aimed at poverty alleviation
and drought and distress proofing was formulated for a period of seven years from
1995-96 to 2001-2002. It had been formally launched by the then Prime Minister Narasimha
Rao in August 1995, and since then eight districts have been added. A revised
version of this programme is now continuing.

Have things changed for the chamars then? The picture is a complicated one.
Bhima's basti houses about 100 chamar (cobbler) families and each family has about four to five children.
However, only a few have the luck to go to the schools. Poor they are and so much
contained within their traditional occupation that they hardly find it easy to study
beyond Bhima's standard. But the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) has been operational in
this district and the region has been offered some resources. "Things have definitely changed
after the National Child
Labour Programme", says Naik.

NCLP schools drawing students

The NCLP is an offshoot of the National Policy on
Child Labour. Under NCLP, children are identified and released from hazardous
occupations and processes, and subsequently rehabilitated and mainstreamed to the
formal education system. The projects are managed by the Child Labour Project
Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1886 and headed by the
Collector of the District as Chairman of the NCLP. For some years now local NGOs
as well as district administration have taken up management of these
schools.

A visit to the Gatesarobarpara primary school, where Bhima read during his
childhood, throws up a sharp story. "The NCLP schools have actually hijacked
the children from the govt. primary and secondary schools", alleges Gatesarobarpara
headmistress Sabitri Swain. "When I joined in 2005, there were more
than 100 names in this school but most of these children were actually attending
either the Beherapali NCLP school or the Daily Market NCLP school", she says.
"Until recently, we were keeping their name in the register and even
kept promoting them to the senior classes because the government has strictly
ordered not to detain the children", adds she, reluctantly. "Now there
are 38 children but only 18 are coming to school", she says.

"Earlier the harijans and upper caste people were considering us as untouchables
but now the system has made us untouchables", says Dingra. "The teachers are
not serious here and they don't bother if a child comes or not", complains
Seshdev Panigrahi, local councillor. "Its not our fault", responds Swain.
"Hundred rupees a month, that is provided as a stipend to the children in NCLP
schools, is an allurement for the children", she points out. "The parents
don't listen to us and send their children to work rather than school",
complains Swain.

While the NCLP schools are not particularly better in their infrastructure, their
teachers have much greater enthusiasm and dedication compared with the
state government schools.

"Development of the (Gatesarobarpara) school has been stopped for few years now and even funds
meant for this school are now being diverted to the primary school at Sudhpara",
says Panigrahi hinting at a grant of eighty thousand rupees that came for school
building improvement in 2000 but was actually spent in the Sudhpara school.
"This school has produced IPS officers but is dying of official apathy", adds
Kashinath Nanda who took away his two daughters from Gatesarobarpara to Sudhpara
because the teachers were not regular here and there was absolutely no extra
curricular activity.

The Sudhpara basti which includes the Chamarpara is predominantly inhabited by
harijans and chamars. Earlier there was only one school  the Gatesarobarpara
school, where Bhima studied. But after the Sudhpara school (also a government school)
was established, most of the parents who
were serious about education took their children
to that school because the building is big and
there are more teachers too. That school
now has 172 children including a good
chunk of chamar students. But this school is also
seeing children move to the
NCLP schools.

"Students who were studying class V here have been taken by their parents to
NCLP school to begin class II again", says Shabita Guru, headmistress of the
Sudhpara Primary School. "This is a fact and the only allurement is the stipend
of hundred rupees (per month)", says Naik. The district
collector of Bolangir, R Santhgopalan however fails to find logic in this
argument. According to him, "A child who does shoe polishing earns on an
average five to six hundred rupees a month and that's why there is no reason why
should he be interested in this stipend." The collector may have a point, but
look at Justi Meher's case.

Justi of Chamarpara was studying class sixth in the Sudhpara school but last
year his parents took him to the Beherapali NCLP school where he is studying
class fourth now. And Justi is not alone. "There must be at least 27 such
children in this village out of the total 50 who are going to NCLP schools" says
Nabaghana Meher, who is about twenty five years of age, and is the highest
educated boy of the Chamarpara and perhaps among the chamars of Bolangir town.
He has passed class tenth and had got admitted in a higher secondary college but
could not continue because of family economic pressures.

Nabaghana is perhaps the only boy in the Chamarpara who thinks there should be a
school in the para itself because the children have to cross a railway track to
attend schools. He had in fact tried to start a school with help of the
Saraswati Sishu Mandir committee. "Some of
their members came here a few years ago
and assured to start a school, but that
did not materialise", says Nabaghana. He is
now imparting tuition to about ten
students from his basti as well as nearby bastis.
He is perhaps the only chamar
boy in the area who does not prefer to do shoe polish.

While the NCLP schools are not particularly better in their infrastructure, their
teachers have much greater enthusiasm and dedication compared with the
state government schools. That coupled with the stipend is drawing children.
"Earlier no one was coming to our village. The NCLP officials came at least and
persuaded us to take our children to school. Further, they are also paying Rs.100/-
as stipend," says Ekka Rohidas whose son Bhika Rohidas goes to the Beherapali NCLP
School.

Unable to escape labour

But the NCLP schools are having their own problems. One, visiting the Daily Market
NCLP School would find sixteen children of Chamarpara in the register but all
don't come daily. "We have been trying to convince them but they have to work,
their parents argue", says senior instructor Antaryami Patel. However, this
NCLP school may still have made the impossible possible. "May be for the
stipend and the egg, but their attendance has not been as discouraging as one
sees in a government primary school", adds Patel. This school has 35 students most
of whom are from the chamar community and some of its ex-students are now at
the high school level too.

Learning polishing lessons early, from grandpa. Pic: Ranjan K Panda.

Still, attendance in itself does not mean education. The reception ability of
the children is not up to mark. "In a survey conducted under SSA, we found that
not even five per cent of the total children in Bolangir's schools are up to the
mark in achievement level of their particular class" says Naik. In fact, last
year a team of World Bank visited the district to review the education programme
and found that the education standard in this poor district is completely below
standard. This forced the SSA to conduct a survey to understand the class-wise
achievement level of students and it was found that students who are in class
five even don't recognize the alphabets properly. And that's for ninety-five
per cent of the children.

"The chamars will have further poor level of understanding as because they don't
have any study atmosphere in their homes", says Guru, Sudhpara's headmistress.
Further, they need to work even when they come to school. "This is the reason,
now a days, you find more chamar girls in schools than boys too", adds she.
Ironically, out of all the school going children from this basti, most are
girls, that's in contradiction to the normal trend in poor children's education.
As per the Human Development Report 2004 for Orissa, the gender disparity
favours the boys. In
Chamarpara, however, the disparity favours the girls.
However, this is no good
news for these poor families.

Eleven year old Krushna Meher of Chamarpara, who is studying class two in the
Daily Market NCLP School goes to hotels and lodges of the town in the mornings
and evenings to polish shoes and earns about 25 to 30 rupees a day. Same is the
case of Bhiku Meher studying class four and most of the others. Drinking habits
of parents and decreasing income from shoe polish for the chamars has put them
in a difficult situation. Complete lack of education and lack of any provisions
for alternative income generation for the chamars is taking a heavy toll on the
education of their own children. "Our business is going down by the day", says
Rohidas. His son goes to the Beherapali NCLP School (as noted earlier), and
also to the market to polish shoes.

Multiplicity of problems

This is the bleak situation for chamars' education in a district which is
implementing special economic packages. How this happens under very noses of the
district head quarters is a question that certainly stares at the policy makers.
Poverty is considered as a major cause of the chamar children's illiteracy and
for their taking to shoe polish. "We need to see that children are not engaged in such
occupations and the elite section of the society should be more conscious
regarding this", says Santhgopalan.

What about caste discrimination? 13 years ago after the Bhima Meher episode,
teachers, parents and officials deny that there is caste discrimination against
the chamars now in schools of Bolangir. Bhima's submission that he was punished
by the teacher because he belonged to a lower caste is now considered a history
even by his father. However, Rinki Rout's silence reveals otherwise. Rinki,
who may be around 12, is
from the Chamarpara and studies class three in the
Gatesarobarpara. "She is
among the three chamar girls from the same basti who are
made to sit in a
corner," admitted the head mistress Swain hesitantly.
All other
students are harijan students. A few chamar boys who study here don't
come at all.

"Rinki is shy and does not speak. She does not have the quality to develop and
the same with the other chamar girls", says the headmistress quickly, apparently
to mete out a signal that she didn't mean to say there was 'caste discrimination' in force in her school. Rinki's silence however confirms that the Bhimas are no history and that 'special economic packages' and 'school
buildings' are not sufficient enough to promote education among these backward communities.
Umesh Purohit, State Convenor of the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL) says,
"Even programmes like NCLP is just taken as a class room programme which cannot solve
the multiplicity of problems that the children of most backward communities like the
chamars face." That sums it up.

Ranjan K Panda09 May 2007

Ranjan K Panda is a researcher and writer on development issues, and is based at Sambalpur, Orissa. This
article is part of a series on education sponsored by Aide-et-Action India, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to making education the lever for development.